Good Casuals at Good Prices in a Variety of Sizes (bonprix.co.uk)

Member Name: MagdaDH

Product:	bonprix.co.uk
Date:	07/06/09 (97 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: different from UK High-street, good prices, decent quality, free returns, same prices for all sizes

Disadvantages: deliveries take a long time

Despite French-sounding name, Bon Prix is a budget part of the German (and the world's largest) mail order company, Otto GmbH. They operate in 10 countries and claim 14 million customers (though it's not clear whether this refers to Bon prix alone or Otto as a whole).

I first encountered Bon Prix in Poland before the advent of Internet shopping and had reasonably good experience, so when I came across it in the UK, I was happy to give it a go and have been using them for several years now.

They offer traditional mail-order as well as Internet shopping, but I have always bought on-line.

**Range**

Bon Prix has a large selection of women's clothing, most of it casual, but with some forays into formal and dressy items. I tend to stick to casual and basic items from Bon Prix, as the more dressy (and more expensive items) do tend to have the "budget" look and feel.

Among the casual clothes, Bon Prix offers mostly a decent budget selection, with prices somewhere between mid-range High Street and catalogue retailers like Marks & Spencer or La Redoute and rock-bottom chains like Primark or Matalan.

The quality pretty much matches the prices: most items are reasonably well made from decent enough fabrics, but there is not much sophistication to designs, and the finishing touches sometimes lack. Bon Prix clothes last quite well: they are more of a solid-but-a-bit-clunky kind than flimsy-and-fall-apart-after-first-wash type. The sizing isn't always entirely consistent, but not to a worrying degree.

The styles are fairly basic, and my feeling is that the more fashionable Bon Prix tries to get, the worse it becomes, but it could be my age showing here.

Some of my most used clothes came from Bon Prix, including three chunkish cotton jumpers whose design I liked so much I bought three different colours (below £20), great pair of smart brown jeans (forgot now how much but certainly less than £25), a winter shower-proof jacket (£30), nice simple cotton or cotton/viscose mix tops (some have unnecessarily feminine designs, but it's usually possible to pick some decent ones; all below £20). T-shirts in a variety of designs can be had from about £5-£8 per top.

I also buy bras from Bon Prix. They are not particularly sophisticated but fit well and many go up to high cup sizes with due consideration for support needed. At around £12-£15 per bra, they are probably the best value large-size bras around. Bon Prix also have a rather daring range of erotic lingerie, with open-cup bras and open-crotch knickers, but as I have not sampled those delights, so can't comment on that.

One of the greatest advantages of Bon Prix for me is the range of sizes they offer. Most items go to 22/24 (although the teenage/youth clothes end at 18); and quite a few of them go all the way up to size 32. The double sizes are sometimes a bit of a problem, with the lower one being slightly small, and the higher one being obviously too large; this only tends to be an issue with close-fit clothes.

All sizes cost the same.

Bon Prix also have men's clothes (in a much smaller selection) and children's range. I have never bought men's clothes, but children's ones are pretty decent too, with styles similar to the cheaper ranges of La Redoute/Vertbaudet. I also like the sizing of children's clothes, which is European style by height and not age.

**Service**

The website is well designed and very usable, with a good functionality for browsing and searching, especially in women's clothes. It's harder to browse children's ranges because when browsing by height different ranges overlap, and when browsing by item type, not all items are available in all sizes.

There is a very useful "quick look" function which allows the browser to see more of the item's detail in a kind of pop-up window without leaving the page.

The delivery costs £3.50, while the returns and replacements are free. This is great because it means you can easily order shedloads of stuff and just try it all on in the comfort of your home and then just send back what you don't want.

Deliveries take quite a long time - just like with La Redoute, the packages come from France and take at least ten days to arrive.

Bon Prix use Home Delivery Network for their deliveries and you have to use them for your returns too.

The refunds of returned goods are processed in reasonable time, but if you are returning some items and replacing others, the refund will be made by cheque rather than to your original card, which takes longer and is generally a bit of a pain.

Bonprix offers a "Club" subscription, which costs £10 and gives you 10% discount for six months. This can be a good value, but it's obviously better to make your first order to see whether you like their goods before committing to this.

At Cahsback kings, BonPrix offers one of the best cahsback rates available at 8%.


**Verdict**

A good online shop with a huge range of casual clothes at attractive prices, and with designs slightly different from what's available from UK retailers. Recommended particularly for those looking for plus sizes and larger cup bras.

Summary: Recommended for casuals, particularly plus-sizes